About — Learning as I Photograph

Learning as I photograph

To create an image of nanotubes for our book, No Small Matter, I first printed a black hexagonal pattern, representing a standard graphite lattice, on an 8×10 piece of transparent acetate. I realized I had to make a choice regarding the configuration for the lattice. (1,2)

I decided on the “zigzag” configuration, pattern 2, purely for aesthetic reasons and began to roll the acetate to make a tube. I secured the edges of the acetate with a couple of pieces of tape and placed the tube on my flatbed scanner. (3)

The result was not terribly compelling. I then “inverted” the nanotube in Adobe Photoshop. (4)

Going further, I combined a few replications of the image to make multiple layers with varying degrees of transparency. (5)

Then, for what became the final composite, I adjusted the image using various filters and additional inversions. (6)

The act of researching and creating this image taught me about nanotube science. Whoever you are—a photographer manipulating a scientific image in today’s virtual darkroom, a physicist sketching on a blackboard, a student reaching for a visual metaphor or graphing a function—understanding often comes through the act of representation.